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We tend to think that the Earth has always
been regarded as Feminine. Mother Earth, nurturing and stable. But has this
always been so?
In the wall paintings of Ancient Egypt we
find depictions of the Sky goddess Nut bending the arch of her star-covered
body over her consort Geb, who is the earth below. But as times and attitudes
changed to become more patriarchal, the sky mother and the earth father changed
places, just as the moon became feminine and the sun became masculine – all
part of the process of re-assigning the 'superior' and 'spiritual' elements to
the masculine and the 'inferior' and 'material' to the feminine.
But is Mother Earth a real concept or a
patriarchal one?
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| Venus of Willendorf |
In the earliest times there seems to have
been a strong emphasis on feminine deities. Apart from male shaman figures
painted on the walls of caves, prehistoric carved male figures are exceptional, with only one or
two rare examples being known. Far more common from these distant times are
carved female figures – the so-called ‘venuses’ – which powerfully suggest a
reverence for the creative role of women and the fruits of the earth. Masculine
gods were apparently introduced slowly, first as consorts and subjects of the
All-Mother, then as equal partners, then later as superior partners, and
finally, in the current monotheistic ‘religions of the book’, the feminine
deity has been willfully banished altogether from patriarchal theology.
Now there are many signs that the goddess
is returning. Kwan Yin, Tara, Gaia, White Buffalo Calf Woman... in all her
aspects the goddess is the bearer of a principle beyond herself. What is this
principle that is so unique to the goddess? Perhaps it is compassion.
But what does this quality of compassion
truly mean? Not all women are wise, but
‘wisdom' is a feminine attribute. She lives as a quality in men and
women who search for her. She is prepared to transform any human mind into wise
certainty - if you ask her, if you love her, if you search for her. In ancient
Egypt she was named Isis; the Ancient Greeks and early Christian Gnostics knew
her as Sophia, and she appeared in human form as Mary, the Magdalene. She pours
herself into every soul that goes through the catharsis, the purification.
Every refining, however small, yields wisdom - the wisdom of a woman.
But what is compassion in its essence? And
how do we find the balance between strength and vulnerability? Being compassionate
requires an active step. We 'see' the other, we are moved by that other and we
act accordingly. Or do we? Karen Armstrong writes in her latest book 'Twelve
steps to a compassionate life': "This is a struggle for a lifetime,
because there are aspects in it that militate against compassion. For example,
it's hard to love your enemies. We are driven by our legacy from our reptilian
ancestors. It makes us put ourselves first, become angry, (and) when we feel
threatened in any way, we lash out violently."
But an eye for an eye makes the whole world
blind.
So we must look to our collective history,
and within ourselves. In my post about the yin-yang (Symbols and the Tao), I
mention that each opposite contains the seed – the potential – to become the
other. The earth and the sky have at different times been thought of as either
feminine or masculine, and if we identify with both, we as well can feel
compassion for both the masculine and the feminine, so that neither dominates
the other, and both exist in compassionate harmony with each other.
